Stretching

Stretching before and after work outs is important aspect of your work out and also to your recovery.

Before a work out helps to warm up, loosen and prepare your muscles for the work out. There are two types of stretches dynamic (movement) and static (non moving). You should try to do dynamic stretches first. Because it will help to warm your muscles up, prevent injury and increase your performance. ONLY once your muscles have loosened you should do some static stretches.

Doing static stretches will decrease your performance because it stretches the muscles when they are not warm will increase the risk of injuries and will decrease your performance. This is because when your muscles are warmed up they are flexible allowing them to be pushed harder return back to there normal shape. Allowing you to push them harder for longer. But if they are not warmed up they are not as flexible, resulting in a decrease in performance and a higher risk of getting an injury.

Stretching after a session will help with the recovery stage, mainly because it helps loosen the muscle and remove the lactic acid from your system. It will also make your body feel fresher so you can be better prepared for your next workout.

Nutrition before and after a work out.

It is important to make sure that you eat some thing before you do any form of work out. Eating before a work out you will maintain a high blood sugar level, prevent stitches, cramps and will be able to maintain a higher performance for longer. Fruit and other natural based food/drink are one of the best things to be eating before because it is a quick source of energy and will last for longer some of these foods include include bananas, apples, Milo, white bread, sultanas just to name a few.

Foods which you should try to avoid are high sugary, processed foods/drink. These include soft drink, lollies, fast food, packaged foods, Red bull, Monster, Mother and other sorts of high energy drinks. These foods may be a quick and easy source of energy but they will not last for along time and when they stop they will make you feel drained, which will result in a decrease in your performance.

After your work out it is very important to eat, because it will help you recover faster and better which will result in less injuries and you will also feel better for you next work out, and will also help maintain a healthy weight. Food which you should try to eat after a work out are foods which are high in protein and natural sugar these include rice, pasta, fruit, vegetables, white bread, whole meal and meat.

Food which you should avoid include processed food. These foods will not help at all in your recovery. Although they might taste good they will not give you the proteins, vitamins and other nutrients which your body needs to maintain a healthy weight after energy levels after a high intensity work out. These include fast food, soft drink, chocolate, lollies.

Dedication and motivation

Dedication and motivation go hand in hand when helping to achieve and reach your limits. If i was not motivated I would not be as good of a swimmer as I am today.All those mornings doing lap after laps day after day, month after month takes a lot of motivation and determination. I think if I did not have as much motivation and dedication to my goals, dreams, and also the sport of swimming i do not think i would be as good as i m today. but There have been some times where i have said to my self " why do i do this, waking up in the at 4.30 every morning and swim," and I reply "because I want to be one of the best swimmers in state, country, or even the world!"

My favourite swimmer of all time Micheal Phelps is a good example of some one who was dedicated and very motivated and because of this massive motivation he has become to be the best swimmer in the world and also history. For example he was so dedicated to swimming he never took a day of not for his birthday, Christmas never.

When ever i see him swim i feel motivated to become as great as he is because that would be the greatest feeling ever and makes me want to work harder in every exercise i do to help get me closer and closer to his level.

Power Set

Today I was a bit bored so I decided to do a upper body power work out. First I did some ab work. This consisted of 50 crunches and 50 bicycles repeated 3 times. I did the first set fast, which helps warm your abs up. 2ND and 3rd set are to be done at a slow and controlled pase. This will work the abs harder and increase the burn. Believe me the burn arrives in the middle of the 2ND set and gets stronger from there.



After this I did some push ups using push up handles (as seen in the picture on the left). This consisted of 20 triceps push ups were your hands are by your side and in close and 20 push ups with the handles wide apart. This was done twice through. After I did this I went on to do some lat pull downs I did 12 of these on about 9 plates. I found that the 1st and half of the second set were fine, but then from there my lats started to burn but I pushed through that burn and in doing that it made it tougher to do but it also will help build up my lats.

At this point I was feeling good and wondering what I could do next. So I decided to do some reverse flies I did 25 of these, 3 times through with light weight and also did them as fast as I could. This exercise will help in making your pectorals stronger and also more power full. After this set I was a bit sore in the pecs so I decided to do a 5 minute cool down on a cross trainer followed by some dynamic stretching.

I love power sets cause they help not just with my swimming but with my strength in general and produces awesome results!!!!

Recovery

Recovery is a really important part to any work out. There are many techniques which help you recover. Most of these techniques are used by high level athletes at the Australia Institute of Sport (A.I.S). Some examples of the techniques are as followed

The first ones a hot/cold shower. What it does is contract the muscle then relax it. This helps drain the lactic acid and other waste products from the muscle. The most common way in which this is done is 1 minute hot then 1 minute cold repeated 3 to 4 times through. This technique works i do it all the time. The first time you hit cold it makes you breath really deeply and also shake because your muscles are squeezing the lactic acid through contracting. This method has one major down side. Cause you finish on cold, you come out freezing, if it is a cold morning the feeling is 20 x worse.



Another way to recover is using a Ice bath. basically it is a bath full of ice and / or cold water. what happens is it contracts the muscle squeezing the lactic acid and other waste products out of your body leaving you feeling good but very cold. This method is used by Olympic athletes especially swimmers all over the world. they usually do it after training or straight after big race where they have them on pool deck. (picture on the left is of a ice bath used by swimmers.)

Kettle Bell

On the weekend i got my self a 12kg kettle bell. Just in case you don't know what a kettle bell is, it is a big ball with a handle on it which sorta looks like a old kettle as seen in the picture on the left . You can use a kettle bell for triceps, biceps, back, shoulders basically most muscle groups. It is really good to use cause it is different to a conventional dun bell because it is bulkier and a entirely shape which works the muscles harder in different ways which helps in good results and also makes working out more interesting. It is one of the best bits of exercise!

Longest 9 minutes of my life.

I have just finished 150 burpees for time. It took me 9 minutes to do it ( 3 minutes faster than the commando, not bragging or any thing :P) and i can honestly it was one of the longest and hardest 9 minutes i have ever had. The amount of lactic acid in my legs made ever jump harder then the last. The last 20 or so were the hardest because the amount of lactic acid in your body is so high that your legs start to feel like they are made of cement. I can not explain how hard it was. If you want a challenge that is mentally and also physically tough i would suggest this because it will really test you! After all the burpees are done you feel like you have accomplished some thing awesome and slightly insane that not much people can say they have done that makes you feel awesome.

(the video is of me doing 150 burpees for time.)

Steve Wilis - 150 Burpies

Today i was watching a video of Steve Willis doing 150 burpees as fast as he can. It takes him 11.39 minutes. while watching this video i had a crazy idea, how long would it take me to do 150 burpees as fast as i can. My guess is that i twill take me around 15 minutes, mainly because i think between 50 - 75 mark the lactic acid will build up in my arms plus my upper body resulting in my slowing down . There is only one way to find out :S. So I will try it out tonight or over the weekend. Wish me luck!!!! (The video of Steve Willis is below please watch it.)